Thursday, July 1, 2010

First week in Nova Granada, Osasco!

Osasco! (Oh-zahs-coo)

Lets start with the less spiritual stuff and then get into it later:

I am in the city with the most cheap things right now! yay!! We have a little ice cream shop that you get "1 scoop" which is HUGH for $R1. It makes me happy. We also have a dollar store!! Ive never seen one before in Brazil. Everyone gets so excited about it here too! Its a novelty!

The area is really big and there are a LOT more hills, buts my muscles are growing as my shoes and body wear down! Gotta look at the bright side, right?!

My Portuguese has already gotten a ton better just in a week of being completely submerged in it, so that is a good sign!! Sister Santos told me that I say a few words without an accent! YAY!

Some of my favorite words and phrases in Portuguese:

Borracharia (tire store) - bow-ha-sha-ree-a (with emphasis on the ree and clicking the tongue with the r like the d in lady more than an r sound....yeah)

Japonês (I might be spelling that wrong) but they say the word for Japanese so beautifully. I cant explain it, buts its pretty!

Fala Serio - Means "be serious" but the literal translation is "speak serious" (This one is thanks to Sis Winters who LOVES to say this!)

Piada sem graça -- I cant think of how this translation would be exactly, but pretty much a graceless joke!

Pode Ser - Could be

Sister Santos is pretty hilarious! She likes to joke around a lot. She´s even more sarcastic than I am...hard to imagine right?! She likes to make fun of me sometimes when I say words wrong too (good naturedly). We are often hitting each other because of the jokes we make...its a two way thing, I admit! She brings out the best and the worst in me! haha!

She knows when to be serious though and she teaches really well. I am learning a lot from her, especially about using good examples to teach principles of the gospel.

This area is really awesome because there are amazing youth here. Most of the references/investigators come from the youth. There was a boy baptized 3 weeks ago, Estefan, who is so strong. We are teaching his friend that he referred to us right now and he will be baptized on Saturday!! Estefan got the priesthood last week so he will be baptizing him and everything! Its so awesome to see such strong recent converts! This ward has a bunch!!

We had a district activity today and played Monopoly deal and ate lunch together. Its was lots of fun! There are some fun people here!!

Sister Erin Knudsen...

We are so excited that Erin will be serving an 18 month mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints! We know that her testimony will touch many, and her spirit will lift those who do not yet have the knowledge of the gospel in their lives. I will keep this blog updated with her letters, photos, and new addresses. Please comment, we would love to hear from all of you and she will treasure this when she get's home! We sure miss her, but are staying strong because we know that she is serving the Lord, and that is amazing.